One order, placed by an unnamed medical imaging device manufacturer in China, is valued at $500,000. Details on a second, $250,000 order, were not provided.

"Although estimated to be the fourth largest in size today, the Chinese medical scanning device market is one of the world's fastest growing,” said Dr. A.F. Zerrouk, chairman, president and CEO of Zecotek.

In the U.S., there are approximately 2,000 PET medical scanners in operation, or about 6.5 scanners per million Americans. China, with a population of approximately 1.5 billion, has a growing need PET medical scanners.

Each PET scanning machine comprises scintillation crystals, photodetectors and a read-out system and costs approximately $1 million to manufacture. Scintillation crystals represent approximately 40 percent of that cost.

Zecotek's manufacturing process permits the growth of very large-diameter boules with uniform properties and without cracking. The crystals will be supplied by the Beijing Opto-Electronics Technology Co., a subsidiary of North China Research Institute of Electronics-Optics.